If you are involved with the healthcare system as a practitioner or attorney, you know that cases involving drug-induced injury are as complex as they are common. While the injury to the patient might seem obvious, in reality that has very little effect on the course that the litigation will take. This makes it especially important to accurately evaluate the case.

Whether prosecuting or defending, you will want to be sure that the case has merit or can be successfully defended. To accomplish this, you need the knowledge of the drug development, regulation, pharmacists practice, and which drugs cause the most injuries. This is all carefully detailed in this new third edition by a medley of well-accomplished authors.

Easy for the non-medical professional to follow, the book is divided into four useful sections. Part I deals with the pharmaceutical process, covering the liability of pharmaceutical companies, warning labels and clinical trials. Part II examines high-risk drug therapies that result in pharmaceutical litigation. You’ll read about important litigation regarding drugs like opiates and pain medications, anticoagulants, steroids, insulin and oral diabetic drugs, as well as allergic reactions, and liver/kidney injuries caused by drugs. Whether or not your case involves the drug cited you’ll find that the theories applicable to one pharmaceutical case are often applicable to another. Part III looks at the professional pharmacist and malpractice claims. Finally, Part IV covers forensic and toxicological issues, particularly recreational drugs, drug testing, and pain equipotency.

You’ll find this text indispensable for the comprehensive information it provides for all those affiliated with the use of drugs in healthcare, in the community, and in the pharmaceutical industry.

This third edition includes brand new chapters on:

• The Pharmaceutical Revolution: Drug Discovery and Development
• Counterfeit Drugs
• General Principles of Pharmacology
• Search and Analysis of the Food and Drug Administration’s Adverse Event Reporting System
• Liability, Litigation, and Lessons in New Drug Development
• Anticoagulants: Therapeutics, Risks, and Toxicity—Special Focus on Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia
• Dangers of Opioids
• Acute Adverse Drug Events in Critical Care: Emergency Department and Intensive Care Units
• HIV Pharmacotherapy and Its Complications
• Fetal Drug Exposure
• Nonscientific Uses and Illegal Marketing of Drugs and Dietary Supplements
• Regulation of Pharmacy Practice
• Pharmacist Malpractice and Liability
• After-Hours Pharmacy Services, Medication Use and Safety in U.S. Hospitals
• Postmortem Redistribution and Interpretation of Drug Levels